Monday, August 26, 2024
By Tori Wittenbrock
Associate Sports Editor
GREEN BAY – The National Football League (NFL) has recently taken a significant hit — both publicly and financially — with the verdict from a Los Angeles federal jury regarding the class action lawsuit about Sunday streaming services.
By recently converting to a format which has allowed the NFL to enter agreements with broadcast partners, the verdict claims that the NFL has contributed to a deliberate overcharging for loyal fans and subscribers of the “Sunday Ticket,” which cost about $450 this past season.
The $4.7 billion verdict would have major ramifications for the League, as well as for individual teams and franchises, such as the Green Bay Packers.
The verdict has determined a 12-year class period with roughly 24.1 million residential subscriptions and over half a million commercial subscriptions, totalling a $4.6 billion award.
The lawsuit claims that by intentionally inflating the prices for the only out-of-market subscription option to televise games, known as the “Sunday Ticket,” the NFL was seeking to limit the fans’ access to these broadcasts, in order to preserve the distribution fees that the networks would have to pay for airing the games locally.
The NFL released a statement saying that they are disappointed with the verdict and believe that it will, “threaten to upend the entire structure by which content is created, distributed and priced.”
In his monthly column, “Murphy Takes 5,” Green Bay Packers CEO and President Mark Murphy typically responds to five fan questions, ranging from high-profile issues to lighthearted inquiries.
In one of his most recent columns, “MT5: The calm before the storm,” where Murphy addresses the quickly approaching Training Camp, he also stepped out as one of the first team figures to address the situation.
Murphy said that he was disappointed in the verdict and said that he knows, “we will appeal the decision. I would also echo the statements that the league expressed.”
While this decision no doubt affects the dedicated fans of all 32 teams in the league, loyal Packers fans who wanted the ability to watch their team take the field every week, even when they didn’t have access to local broadcasting.
Because the Packers are among the most popular teams in the NFL and have such a widespread fanbase, any fans outside of Wisconsin who wished to follow their team’s performance live each week have also been subjected to the inflated costs of the NFL’s “Sunday Ticket” package in accordance with services like DirecTV and YouTube TV.
The NFL released a statement saying, “We continue to believe that our media distribution strategy, which features all games broadcast on free over-the-air television in the markets of the participating team and national distribution of our most popular games, supplemented by many additional choices, such as RedZone, Sunday Ticket and NFL+, is by far the most fan friendly distribution model in all of sports and entertainment.”
The NFL also addressed their intent to appeal the verdict stating, “We will certainly contest this decision as we believe that the class action claims in this case are baseless and without merit.”
In the days since the verdict — outside of Murphy — no team owner or figure has addressed the verdict or the future of the lawsuit and it’s pertinence to NFL fans across the country.
